At a presentation held today at Porto City Hall, the city councilor for Urban Planning and Public Space, Pedro Baganha, described the area as a “delayed urban territory and problem,” while architect Álvaro Siza reflected on the projects he had submitted in 1968 and 2001 that had been “shelved.”
The Avenida D. Afonso Henriques, known locally as “Avenida da Ponte,” connects the upper deck of the Luis I Bridge to Praça de Almeida Garrett, creating a division between the S. Bento Station area and the Sé district.
On the western side of the site (near the Sé), where the Mercado de S. Sebastião was recently demolished, the architect has designed a residential building with an “architecture evocative of Porto’s architectural typology,” which aims to redevelop Travessa de São Sebastião, explained Pedro Baganha to Lusa.
Adjacent to this, two additional residential buildings will be constructed to complete the Corpo de Guarda street.
Also on the Sé Cathedral side, Siza Vieira plans a building for cultural services, a small square, a new street, a pedestrian pathway, and a “large garden.”
On the eastern side of the site (near the S. Bento Station), three residential buildings are planned to “complete the rua Chã,” alongside a second building for cultural amenities and a viewpoint on a stone escarpment.
The planned housing along Avenida da Ponte is estimated to comprise around 40 new units, with the number limited due to the UNESCO-classified status of the area.
“We cannot lose sight that we are dealing with World Heritage, which has a specific scale, atmosphere, and way of life. The great advantage of the proposed project is that it enhances the very atmosphere that is typical and traditional in the center of Porto,” emphasized Pedro Baganha.
Regarding the types of housing to be built, the councilor noted the impending municipal elections and that the decision would rest with the next administration.
“I would say that, if this administration continued, [with] this president and this councilor, clearly these buildings would remain in the municipal domain for public housing. Whether it is affordable, social, or mixed, we could not say,” clarified Pedro Baganha.
When asked if he felt any regrets about his earlier projects for Avenida da Ponte not being realized, Siza Vieira responded negatively.
“In the current situation, an architect cannot afford regrets or they’d go crazy because if regrets existed, they would be constant,” he joked.
On March 25, the municipal company Porto Vivo SRU signed a 300,000-euro contract with architect Siza Vieira to create a lotting project (and corresponding specialty projects) for Avenida da Ponte, following his previous submissions for this city area.
The lands of Avenida da Ponte are municipal, and the lotting project presented today is still undergoing external technical reviews and will subsequently proceed to public consultation.
In the late 1940s, several houses were demolished to create a road link between the upper deck of the Luis I Bridge and Praça de Almeida Garrett. Various studies were done for this connection, but the area’s topography hindered these designs, eventually leading to the creation of Avenida Dom Afonso Henriques, known as “Avenida da Ponte.”
Over the last 70 years, numerous projects have been proposed to fill the urban void left by the demolitions, and today Siza Vieira presented his third design for the area.
